your demeanor would indicate that you are frustrated by these e-mails as they roll out and tell a story. do you agree with the story that this is indicative of those that are making decisions -- that they did not have accountability for costs? >> the employees that work for me, the leaders i work with, they have a strong accountability for the cost, their actions, exercise good judgment. dismaying, very disappointing, sir. >> when does this translate into my veterans in north carolina count the moms and dads, the children counting on care of?ng taken when are we going to get our act together? i yield back.

least, thet not gentlelady from new mexico. thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for recognizing that i am another year older. given the alternative, i am willing to take. i had a nice time last night. i know that being be -- being in the best of, circumstances, our job and yours, no matter how much resource you have or don't have, is to use that funding in the way that you can. i would agree that where you have the flexibility to move as

of youryour -- as much administered of funds, including training and conferences into services and benefits were you are making a difference for veterans and families directly. i have 20 plus years in local and state governments and worked as a cabinet secretary. i was clear that my dollars needed to go to seniors and their families. that was an effective use of my time. i also recognize that when we act strictly and narrowly, we can do damage. your staff must be trained and have access to innovative new resources and tools. software new implemented that helps with the backlog and is more effective,

you're going to need training at that level. that is not what we are talking about here. and a fan of having trained productive public and private workforce that are doing the best job. i am not going to be your advocate. -- i am not going to be your advocate for spending nearly a million dollars for a conference that had marketing. i recognize there are limitations on how you deal with accountability. that is an area we need to do a better job in, too. thank you for owning this problem and implementing as many of those recommendations. i'm going to take a different twist. 's reaction might cause harm and not get to the real issue. smart aboutu to be

how you spend your money, regardless of what it is and what it is attended -- intended for. my district is home to a national laboratory that is a critical player in the nation's defense, andal employ some of the brightest minds. i'm going to region excerpt from a letter -- i am going to read excerpt from a letter. these interactions are critical to keeping our researchers at the cutting edge in their field. he shares my desire to ensure that we are spending our taxpayer dollars wisely.

offers suggestions for developing standards for evaluating and managing the cost and risk of conference spending. i have another letter that is from the center from association leadership. clearly, we do not want these mistakes made. we want to be careful that we do not minimize opportunities that make us a more efficient and effective government. i would ask to put this record of a letter. -- i would asked to put this letter in the record. >> so ordered. >> i hope that we leave this hearing with the kinds of issues that we have identified should never come before this committee or anyone else again. wise, smart,ing efficient, effective leadership

in all of our public entities. we want the recommendations put in place effectively prohibit this kind of waste but do not amit opportunities to have well-trained, well recognized, productive workforce. my fear is we will go too far. we will not do health research, scientific research, and we will not find the best way to serve our veterans and their families. i yield back. does the ranking member want to close? seeing none, i am informed by staff, having reviewed what was sent to us as quote "the manual" --with all due respect, i have had to have manuals that

complied. this is not it. this is not even close to it. is there another document we are unaware of that would reflect a manual? you can confer with your staff. the handbook was included in the oig response on october 23. >> we did not receive that response. recent. pretty mr. griffin, do you know something about this? there has been a flurry of documents sent to us as a result of the hearing for which we are grateful. -- you will get what you ask for? -- personalsay receipt of the manual. i have not seen it myself. a i hope you will forward us copy if you find it in that

last-minute dump in anticipation of this hearing. >> i will do that, mr. chairman. >> i want to thank you for being here. , i expect we will see you in the future. i talked to the chairman of the veterans affairs committee, it is our intention to continue to look at what is driving backlog down, if it starts really going down and they look at what is -- of theat the question bas drive to change the culture -- the va's drive to change the culture. something arrived just before, but not in time for you to review it for a full committee hearing -- that begs the question of whether you are andg treated with respect

your department that we expect all ig's to be treated with. i recognize the ranking member. how many pages is the handbook? give me an approximation. >> it is about 40 pages. >> 40 pages. i see. i want to thank you and your staff. i have to tell you, we can do better. i think you would agree with that. don't you? do you agree? >> i agree. >> we can do better. it would be legislative malpractice if we stood on the and of the deus -- dias said everything was ok. it is not ok.

we realize you have a lot of balls up in the air, but i have to tell you -- as far as conferences are concerned, i can see there has been -- you have not spent as much money. it seems you have control. it will see when you submit the documents you will be submitting. we are concerned about the backlog. chairman talks about what kind of culture we have there. sure we have a culture that is one that believes in the efficiency and effectiveness, making sure the taxpayer dollars are spent in a prudent way and make sure that money is spent to enhance the

lives of our veterans. they have given their blood, sweat and tears, and so many families have lost a loved one. we see this as the urgency of now. the we were talking about handbook, i did not feel a sense of urgency. aasked a question about document that was due october 12 2012, and it seems as if, we will get to only can. that is not good enough. we hope you will address these issues with some sense of urgency. i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman and all participants. we stand adjourned.

a with stephen kinzer. today, the president's privacy and civil liberties oversight board will hold a public meeting to discuss changes to the nsa's data collection and surveillance programs. members will review programs allowing mass collection of phone records and internet data and the board will hear from the chief legal officers at the fbi, nsa, and the office of the director of national intelligence. that will be live at 9:15 a.m. on c-span2. importantthe tenants to the carrier is the idea that all americans, the matter where you live, should have access to

affordable telecommunication services. as we got this evolution of going from playing telephone service to a broadband world, how do we ensure americans have access to the same services and the services that come across on those networks. we've been talking about how important it is to maintain the tenets of universal service. , what that means, and how that mechanism has allowed folks in -- folks to have customizable serpas -- services. bowlmparable lies a

>> this week on q&a, stephen kinzer discusses his new book, titled "the brothers: john foster dulles, allen dulles, and their secret world war." >> stephen kinzer, in your book, : john foster dulles, allen dulles, and their secret world war," you tell a story up front about dulles airport in washington and the statue and the naming. what is that? >> john foster dulles had recently died when that super airport in chantilly, virginia was being built. president eisenhower immediately announced that the airport would be named dulles airport. when kennedy took over, he didn't want to name it after a crusty old cold warrior. the was pushed back and finally the decision was made to name it after dulles. you can still see the film clip of kennedy opening the airport with eisenhower there and allen dulles there. he pulls back a curtain and behind the curtain is this giant bust of john foster dulles.

that bust stands in the middle of this big airport. i went to see it while i was writing this book. i couldn't find it. i started asking security guards. where is nobody had ever even the big bust of dulles? nobody had ever even heard of it. it was a long process and finally, thanks to the washington airport loss -- the washington airports authority, i was able to discover that the bust had been taken away from its place in the middle of the airport and it is now in a closed conference room opposite baggage claim number three. i find this a wonderful metaphor for how the dulles brothers who at one time exercised earth shattering power and were able to make and break governments have now been effectively forgotten and airbrushed out of our entire history. >> who were -- or who was allen dulles and who was john foster dulles? >> of these two brothers were about the most extraordinary pair of siblings to emerge in american history up to that point.